As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
armchair wrote:Souness is spot on
Wenger didn't "revolutionise English football"
Nor did he "build the club"
Though he loves to be lauded and given the credit for it. Infuriates me when these lazy journo and pundits and AKBs trot out this type of mythical tripe.
He was lucky to find himself at the biggest club in the capital city with a history and tradition unequalled. He has since systematically and deliberately gone about trying to erase it all.
Man is a snide, contriving, lying,greedy fraud. Did I miss anything out?
Amongst the focus on how shit we are and 'will he won't' over AW the Press seem to have overlooked the fact that the Board are supposed to manage the club in its best interests. However, the fuckwits either know what AW is going to do and are keeping everybody in the dark, which is unacceptable, or, a couple of games from the end of the season, they don't know who are is going to manage us from next month.
The biggest contribution Wenger gave to English football is the misconception that finishing in the top 4 is the be all and end all. The Liverpool and spurs fans creaming their pants cos they are in the top 4 is laughable. A majority of Arsenal fans sussed this out a few years ago.
Souness short summary is perfect. Wenger inherited the best back 5 in world football, and at the time knew more than anyone else about France's emerging talent during its golden period. Wenger simply put the likes of Petit, Vieira, Anelka, Henry, Pires in front of the best back 5, and throw in Dennis Begkamp, and Wenger was no more than 50% responsible for the early success.
Adams, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown ect passed the defending philosophy onto players like Cole & Campbell. But when those two left, the defensive rot set in. Add to that, technology an increase scouting networks killed Wengers competitive advantage with cherry picking the best talent out of France. The loss of the defensive foundations he inherited, and modernization of football pretty much ensured the end for Wenger as a manager capable of winning a trophy.
Wilson wrote:Souness short summary is perfect. Wenger inherited the best back 5 in world football, and at the time knew more than anyone else about France's emerging talent during its golden period. Wenger simply put the likes of Petit, Vieira, Anelka, Henry, Pires in front of the best back 5, and throw in Dennis Begkamp, and Wenger was no more than 50% responsible for the early success.
Adams, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown ect passed the defending philosophy onto players like Cole & Campbell. But when those two left, the defensive rot set in. Add to that, technology an increase scouting networks killed Wengers competitive advantage with cherry picking the best talent out of France. The loss of the defensive foundations he inherited, and modernization of football pretty much ensured the end for Wenger as a manager capable of winning a trophy.
Spot on.
Also from 2005-16 the illusion of being able to compete was due to the mistakes made by other leading clubs (not by anything Wenger did) sheer luck resulted in us finishing in the top 4 each season culminating in the 2015/16 freak season when we came 2nd - but STILL we could not actually compete for the title with Leicester !
2016 TV money total game changer
Wenger completely exposed after even he has to spend £100 milllion in the summer.
Personally I am not one for discrediting Wenger's success between 96 and 04. Yes he had grest players but the Invincibles squad was more or less of his own making. I still think the game at Birmingham in 2008 was a huge moment and things may have been different if Clichy hadn't had his brain fart.
He has dug enough of a hole for himself from 2011 onwards to justify the need for him to leave. The way he has conducted himself in the last few months in particular has been completely disrespectful to everyone. I remember being in complete awe of the man when I was 13/14 but now I can't stand the sound or sight of him.
He should have gone after the cup win against Hull (at the very latest), I think he was selfish because he knew that this was the time when we would have more money available, so instead of thinking in the clubs best interest and stepping down at that point he convinced himself that with more money to spend he could become a great manager again. Pretty sure I've seen it somewhere that had we lost that final he'd have steppted down, when we were 0-2 I seriously thought he was done, I wish we didn't come back now ffs!.
This time though he is not to blame, we all know how selfish he is and past his best but the board have to make the decision this time, handing the choice over to him is as good as giving him the new contract themselves, if he stays we know who to blame.
That says everything. Everyone knows Maureen hates wenger and vice-versa.
on a slightly different track, but still relevant:
The UK's richest 1,000 people "kept calm and carried on making billions" amid the Brexit vote of 2016, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
Their wealth rose by 14% over the past year to a record £658bn, it shows.
The Duke of Westminster - 26-year-old Hugh Grosvenor - is the only British-born billionaire in the top 10. He became the world's richest under-30 when he inherited the family estate last year Alisher Usmanov, who owns 30% of Arsenal Football Club, added more than £4bn to his £11.79bn fortune
Brexit supporter Sir James Dyson, who last year became the first self-made Briton to break the £5bn barrier, this year increased his wealth to £7.8bn
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, was the highest new entrant among sports stars with £110m after his move to Manchester United
Adele consolidated her position as Britain's wealthiest ever female musician by earning £40m, bringing her assets to £125m
on a slightly different track, but still relevant:
The UK's richest 1,000 people "kept calm and carried on making billions" amid the Brexit vote of 2016, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
Their wealth rose by 14% over the past year to a record £658bn, it shows.
The Duke of Westminster - 26-year-old Hugh Grosvenor - is the only British-born billionaire in the top 10. He became the world's richest under-30 when he inherited the family estate last year Alisher Usmanov, who owns 30% of Arsenal Football Club, added more than £4bn to his £11.79bn fortune
Brexit supporter Sir James Dyson, who last year became the first self-made Briton to break the £5bn barrier, this year increased his wealth to £7.8bn
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, was the highest new entrant among sports stars with £110m after his move to Manchester United
Adele consolidated her position as Britain's wealthiest ever female musician by earning £40m, bringing her assets to £125m
Abramovich is only worth 8 billion. If you are going to have a foreign owner, he doesn't have to be the richest.....just the most committed.
Bob Bayliss wrote:
Abramovich is only worth 8 billion. If you are going to have a foreign owner, he doesn't have to be the richest.....just the most committed.
Yeah Abramovich is a dodgy c**t just like our own oligarch but you can't deny he wants Chelsea to win and puts that ahead of profit, our owner is the polar opposite, he locks out Usmanov from the board and is only interested in the club (PLC) making money, I don't get why any Arsenal fan would want to put money in this c**ts pocket?, stop going ffs, I know it's hard but just think what is left of 'The Arsenal' really? - profiteer owner who doesn't care, manager who treats the fans with utter contempt, players who don't give a toss, a souless over priced stadium with no atmosphere.. all while we can't even win the top 4 trophy anymore hmm really sold on this! Lol.
on a slightly different track, but still relevant:
The UK's richest 1,000 people "kept calm and carried on making billions" amid the Brexit vote of 2016, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
Their wealth rose by 14% over the past year to a record £658bn, it shows.
The Duke of Westminster - 26-year-old Hugh Grosvenor - is the only British-born billionaire in the top 10. He became the world's richest under-30 when he inherited the family estate last year Alisher Usmanov, who owns 30% of Arsenal Football Club, added more than £4bn to his £11.79bn fortune
Brexit supporter Sir James Dyson, who last year became the first self-made Briton to break the £5bn barrier, this year increased his wealth to £7.8bn
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, was the highest new entrant among sports stars with £110m after his move to Manchester United
Adele consolidated her position as Britain's wealthiest ever female musician by earning £40m, bringing her assets to £125m
Abramovich is only worth 8 billion. If you are going to have a foreign owner, he doesn't have to be the richest.....just the most committed.
And 3 seasons ago Usmanov offered an Open Chequebook to the Arsenal board, he isn't even on the board ffs, which itself is weird seeing as he holds so many shares....
I hate how all these zillionaires have bought football - HATE IT!, but the game is gone and so is Arsenal, and what remains of the club - If, "IF" we are going to compete within this new way that football is run, hen so be it get the guy in who Will spend and spend and spend AND get shot of a shyte manager etc.
on a slightly different track, but still relevant:
The UK's richest 1,000 people "kept calm and carried on making billions" amid the Brexit vote of 2016, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
Their wealth rose by 14% over the past year to a record £658bn, it shows.
The Duke of Westminster - 26-year-old Hugh Grosvenor - is the only British-born billionaire in the top 10. He became the world's richest under-30 when he inherited the family estate last year Alisher Usmanov, who owns 30% of Arsenal Football Club, added more than £4bn to his £11.79bn fortune
Brexit supporter Sir James Dyson, who last year became the first self-made Briton to break the £5bn barrier, this year increased his wealth to £7.8bn
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, was the highest new entrant among sports stars with £110m after his move to Manchester United
Adele consolidated her position as Britain's wealthiest ever female musician by earning £40m, bringing her assets to £125m
Abramovich is only worth 8 billion. If you are going to have a foreign owner, he doesn't have to be the richest.....just the most committed.
And 3 seasons ago Usmanov offered an Open Chequebook to the Arsenal board, he isn't even on the board ffs, which itself is weird seeing as he holds so many shares....
I hate how all these zillionaires have bought football - HATE IT!, but the game is gone and so is Arsenal, and what remains of the club - If, "IF" we are going to compete within this new way that football is run, hen so be it get the guy in who Will spend and spend and spend AND get shot of a shyte manager etc.
#wengerout
Thing is, even if you gave Wenger a blank chequebook he still wouldn't win the title.
Usmanov would get rid of Wenger quicker than he could say the team lacked sharpness. I know he's publicly backed him but it's purely PR because he's currently persona non grata. Let him gain a foothold in the club and see if he tolerates this nonsense. It was the same way Ken Bates was fooled into thinking he'd retain power before Abramovich took over Chelsea but as soon as the takeover was complete they got shot of him and handed him a token role. Same thing has happened to Bernie Ecclestone recently.
What would likely happen now is Wenger staying on and the club engaging in escalating committing by throwing money at the problem. Rumour in the papers today that club is willing to match £85m fee for Mpabbe and will guarantee him a central role. We need to reach the point where expenditure far exceeds revenue and force Kroenke to either dip his money into his pockets or fukoff. Hopefully the share price starts to tumble too. We could easily be in this position within 2 years.
Last edited by General on Sun May 07, 2017 11:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
